ms-keyboards aren't working through bootcamp on macs

Hello,

I've got iMacs running Leopard (v10.5.8) with bootcamp so that Windows XP professional is also installed. I'm trying to use the ms-accurate keyboards on the Windows side, but they won't register any key presses. Very rarely we have gotten them to eventually work by plugging them in and out of different USB ports but we have this problem with all the iMacs we've tried it out on (so probably not something like a faulty port). It doesn't seem to make a difference whether the standard keyboard is plugged in or not. We've run a similar setup on MacBook laptops (running Tiger & XP prof.) with no problems, so I'm thinking either the iMacs or Leopard is to blame. Any ideas?

thanks,
Lee

Do the keyboards run properly on the Mac side?

I know we had to change our USB firmware between OS 10.2 and 10.3. Perhaps something similar has happened here as well?

they work fine on the Mac side.

When I plug the keyboard in with the Windows XP OS, in the Device Manager it says-
Device type: Human Interface Devices
Manufacturer: (Standard system devices)

and for Device status, it says "This device cannot start. (Code 10)"

I googled that but couldn't find any useful info. We'd like to start testing once this is figured out (I have anxious collaborators waiting to begin too at 2 other universities). Any suggestions for how to get these keyboards working?

thank you,
Lee

Thanks. The fact that the keyboard works on the Mac side is encouraging.

Do you have a spare PC (Windows only) available you could test the keyboard against?

Unfortunately, we don't currently have any new Macs running Windows here, so it's hard to exactly recreate your situation.

The keyboards do work fine on a PC desktop running only Windows XP professional (same version of Windows as my iMacs). So do you think it's an issue with the bootcamp that comes with Leopard then? A driver issue? or lack thereof? (even though Windows clearly has the right driver in the absence of bootcamp)

thanks for helping me with this!

-Lee

[QUOTE=Lee;12306]The keyboards do work fine on a PC desktop running only Windows XP professional (same version of Windows as my iMacs). So do you think it's an issue with the bootcamp that comes with Leopard then? A driver issue? or lack thereof? (even though Windows clearly has the right driver in the absence of bootcamp)

thanks for helping me with this!

-Lee[/QUOTE]

I'm inclined to think that it is related to the drivers somehow. Since both the Mac and PC drivers work properly when alone, there's clearly something off re: Bootcamp. I'll see what other information I can dig up.

Thanks. Do you know which driver the keyboards use? Do you suppose (re)installing that driver would work?

Hi there,

I have a little more info which may help - I tried updating both bootcamp (to 2.2) and Windows XP to see if the most recent versions had the drivers all sorted out, but now the keyboards never work - I always get that same Code 10 message. The previous version of bootcamp was 2.1 and the keyboards would occasionally work with that. When they did work, it was always at least 2.5mins after the desktop appeared and I always had to plug in the keyboard fresh to get it to register.

Thanks again for your help!

-Lee

[I][edited by moderator][/I]

Hi Lee,

We're working on this, thanks. It appears to be an issue relating to how the USB drivers work under BootCamp.

I discovered this posting on Apple's forums... It may be useful, especially the discussion re: a Repair Installation of Windows.

[url]http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1318354&tstart=0[/url]

Hi there,

I tried doing a repair installation of XP and I get the same Code 10 error when I plug in the ms-accurate keyboard. Any other ideas?

thank you,
Lee

John, our Citrix remote support software (GoToAssist) allows us to log onto remote Macs (i.e., not just PCs). Maybe we could troubleshoot this directly if Lee would grant us permission to log on to one of his iMacs both in BootCamp XP and Mac Leopard mode to explore the issue? Let me know if you guys are both into this and I'll help you get the session(s) set up.

Also, Lee, any chance you could try a Windows 7 install on one of these machines?

Also, Lee, not sure if it is an option for you to try [I]Parallels 5.0[/I] but it apparently can access the hardware directly now in the same way that BootCamp can. I suggest this (like trying Windows 7) just in case it may related to some Windows XP x BootCamp 2-way interaction.

For more info on [I]Parallels 5.0[/I], see Post #16 here:
[URL]http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=16[/URL]

Or directly on Apple's site (depending on how long the link is valid):
[URL]http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/parallelsdesktopformac.html[/URL]

We are having problems with our keyboards - they do not work consistently. On some days, the keyboards will work. And on other days, they do not work - they are simply frozen, and do not work at all. We reboot the computer and start over, and it doesn't help anything. Then after a few days, a keyboard that was not working will all of a sudden start working again. But then after a day or so, it will freeze up again. Right now, all 4 keyboards we purchased are not working - yikes!!!

To clarify: we are using the DirectIN-PCB keyboards. We are using the keyboards while running a study in DirectRT, version 2008.2.103.1115 (I think that's right....there might be a typo in some of those #s). We use Macs, but we are running Windows 7 on the Macs using Boot Camp. Is this enough info for starters?

Kwise1,

As you can see we have run into this before, but we didn't have knowledge that it could happen on Windows 7 through Bootcamp. Is it the case that the keyboards do not work in all applications or just DirectRT? Also, do you have them connected directly to the systems (not with any extensions)? I presume so, but just checking.

Hi - thanks for the reply! The keyboards do not work at all, in any application. It's as if they've completely frozen up.

They are plugged directly into the mac minis.

Just wanted to check in - any suggestions as to what we should do?

[QUOTE=Kwise1;15184]Just wanted to check in - any suggestions as to what we should do?[/QUOTE]

Private message sent.

Just an update here, it looks like Windows 7 is having trouble pulling up the drivers for the keyboards on some systems. John is working on a hardware revision for this right now and hopefully we'll have a solution shortly (John says it could just be a matter of a few days). In the meantime, I'm going to also look into some software solutions.

Also, Lee, from your posts above I see you are running [I]XP[/I] through Bootcamp and not Windows 7. Curious to know if you ever found a resolution to this. I ask because I haven't heard of any other XP problems (either via Bootcamp or straight-up) and want to know if we should be looking at this while we're working on the Windows 7 issue here.

We've just released v2010 firmware for the DirectIN boxes and keyboards. It appears that this firmware is compatible with all modern operating systems (specifically XP, Windows 7, Mac OX 10.6, etc).

Contact us for details.